Based on feedback at the end of the last series we are continuing to run these, on the second Tuesday at 10.00 and the fourth Tuesday at 09:00, each month.
How do I join the sessions?
We’re making it simpler to get signed up for these sessions / add them to your calendar this year. For those who have already become members of the site (signed up last year), we have sent the invitations to you directly.
For those who haven’t signed up before, please follow the instructions below.
On the home page, scroll down until you see the “Ask Me Anything Sessions – 2024 / 25” section.
The section will display a message about the group being deleted – it hasn’t (it’s a SharePoint quirk!). Click on the link “The Microsoft Ask Me Anything Pages” to join the membership group … Initial “deleted group” message
You will be automatically added to the group and see a page as follows …
Successful joining of the group
Now close the tab with the “You’ve joined this group” message and refresh the SharePoint page. You will then see the upcoming sessions.
Click on the title for a session and then in the window click on “Add event to your calendar” and choose whether you want to add the single occurrence or the series. How to add the occurrence or series to your calendar
If you add the series then you need to just go to one entry for each series (2nd Tuesday vs 4th Tuesday) and add that series.
You will get an ICS file downloaded which will either be for the single date or the session depending on your choice in step 3.
Open the ICS file that has downloaded and accept the invitation to add the event or series into your calendar. Repeat for the second series or for as many sessions as you wish to join individually!
Once you’ve done that check your calendar for the entries to the meeting including the join link for Teams.
In mid 2023, Microsoft introduced the option to choose colours for folders in OneDrive for Business on the web.
Microsoft is bringing coloured folders to OneDrive within the Microsoft Windows File Explorer starting in mid-September 2024 and scheduled to finish by mid-October 2024.
If you have used coloured folders on the web version of OneDrive then these will be replicated in the OneDrive in your Windows File Explorer.
Once the change happens, you can also update and manage the colour for folders in your OneDrive from within the File Explorer.
This blog article rounds up a number of recently announced or released updates during the Summer of 2024.
Teams Breakout Rooms – choose your room
Planned for release by late October – Meeting Organisers using Breakout Rooms will be able to choose whether participants are assigned to specific breakout rooms in advance or whether they can choose which breakout room to join. This will prove useful for meeting participants where organisers wish to allow participants a choice.
Meeting organisers should look for the new feature in the breakout rooms panel when setting up the breakout rooms.
Organiser view of breakout room setup for attendee choice
Attendee view of breakout room choice
Available late October 2024
OneNote for Windows 10
As previously advised, Microsoft are ending support for the OneNote for Windows 10 application at the end of October 2025.
You are recommended to use the OneNote Windows application which is bundled with the Office 365 download.
OneNote for Windows now supports the option to move the navigation bar to the left side of the app providing a consistent navigation experience across all OneNote apps.
Support ends October 2025
Microsoft Teams – Rename the General channel
From mid-September 2024, Team owners will be able to rename the General channel to something more meaningful for their team.
If you rename the General channel you cannot rename it back to General at a later date.
When changed the channel will appear in alphabetical order amongst any other channels created.
The renamed channel cannot be archived or deleted.
Available mid September 2024
Microsoft Teams – New skin tone settings and reactions
From late October 2024, new skin tone settings will be enabled to allow users to choose a preferred skin tone for relevant emojis and reactions across chats, channels and meetings on all Teams platforms (Teams for Desktop, Teams for web, Teams for Mac and Teams Mobile).
Set your skintone via the settings in MS Teams
Set skintone via the emojis element in MS Teams reactions
Available late October 2024
Microsoft Teams – Notify when available
You can now get notified when a colleague’s status changes to available.
You can subscribe to the notifications by doing the following
Right click (or tap on the “…”) on a person in the chat list view and choose “Notify when available”
How to set “Notify when available”
Available now
MS Teams – Calendar Notifications
You will now see calendar notifications in Teams through the Activity Feed. You will also be able to accept or reject calendar invitations through this activity feed view.
You can change this through the “Notifications and activity” section of Teams settings.
This is one by default in your activity feed.
How to change the calendar notifications for the Activity Feed
Available now
MS Teams – Emojis, GIFs and Stickers in One Picker
Microsoft have simplified the selection of emojis, gifs and stickers, bringing all elements into one unified picker in MS Teams.
Screenshot of the simplified emjoi, GIF and sticker picker.
In place of Live Events (which have now been deprecated in Imperial), Microsoft are providing a new feature called Town Halls. This offers many of the features that were available in Live Events, such as anonymous audience viewing and a moderated Q and A using the Teams Q and A feature which has evolved and is available more generally across Teams meetings.
In addition, Microsoft have added a feature to Town Halls which allows additional presenters on the screen – so it is much easier to hold Q and A sessions with multiple presenters at the same time or for multiple speakers to appear on screen together.
To request access to schedule a Town Hall event, you will need to complete a new Town Hall request form. Please only complete this form (https://forms.office.com/e/jdi6yP53EQ) to request Town Hall capabilities if you need to deliver a large-audience meeting with anonymous, unseen audiences.
Webinars – Available NOW
If you want to run a webinar, which is more like a normal Teams meeting but with greater audience control and with a registration form, then please complete the Webinar request form at https://forms.office.com/r/RDq7yw8Vmv
Teams Premium License – Available NOW
We recommend purchasing a Teams Premium license through ICT to gain full functionality, including the advanced features in Town Halls and Webinars.
Teams Premium licenses enable all the registration and communications features in Town Halls and Webinars, and in Webinars, allow for the restriction of numbers and the ability to run a “wait list”.
In addition Teams Premium licenses offer AI meeting notes and tasks features in normal Teams Meetings.
One Drive for Business is a great feature included in your Microsoft 365 work subscription. There are however some pitfalls which occupy space that you may not be aware of.
The biggest of these is also one of the collaborative features – versioning of Office files.
When you create a file and store it on One Drive for Business you enable versioning by default. So you can update a file and it automatically creates a new version – you don’t need to save it as V1, V2, etc.
The changes are saved using a shredded saving method whereby changes are saved in small files, BUT as far as your quota and space use are concerned, Microsoft count every version as a full copy of the file.
So if you have a 10 MB Word file and have 100 versions of the file then you are deemed to be occupying approximately 1GB of space.
You may not need all those versions but all the time that you keep them they occupy space and that can mean you use up your One Drive space quite quickly.
The following shows you how to check your usage and how to remove unwanted versions of the file(s).
Checking your space.
Log into One Drive for Business and then from the Settings cog wheel (top right near your profile initials or photo) select One Drive Settings.
Access OneDrive settings
Choose the More settings option and then look for the Storage Metrics option.
List of settings
Your One Drive contains other contents to make the system work, so you’ll need to select “Documents” which is the Documents library where your files are stored.
OneDrive documents
The Storage metrics view shows you the folders and files with the storage used, working from largest to smallest as you traverse down the list.
Finding the large files using your space
Where you see a large file, you can click on the Version History link to check for versions.
Viewing the version history
In the example below, my spreadsheet file has over 3,500 versions of a 1.7MB file. With a default of 500 versions being stored, over 700 MB of space is being used.
Using Delete All Versions and the warning message
You can click on the “Delete All Versions” link to remove all except the current version. The deleted versions are moved to the Recycle Bin and you have 90 days to recover these. You can choose to permanently delete these versions from the recycle bin but you should be aware that this is NOT reversible. Once removed from the Recycle Bin you cannot recover them.
File size reduction after removing versions
Why so many versions?
The default number of versions for One Drive and SharePoint is 500. You can go into your One Drive settings and change the number of versions (N.B. the minimum number of versions that you can store is 100).
To change the number of versions follow the steps from the One Drive Settings menu – choose “Return to old Site settings Menu”
Then choose Site libraries and lists.
Access site libraries and lists settings
Choose the Documents site library.
Choosing the document library to customise settings
Choose Versioning settings
Choosing the Versioning settings
Change the maximum number of versions and click OK.
Update the number of versions being kept
Note that the number you set has to be between 100 and 50000!
Choose a valid number of versions to keep
Be very careful about increasing the number – you will potentially use up ever more space.
If you have files where the number of versions exceeds your current setting then when you next save a file with more versions, the system will automatically reduce the number of versions to the maximum number that you have set.
Do you get invited to meetings which you can’t attend due to meeting clashes or a leave of absence, but where you want to know what happens and the decisions taken?
What is being introduced and When?
From late May 2024, Microsoft is introducing a new “Follow” response for meeting invitations.
Screenshot of the “Follow” button in a meeting invitation.
What happens?
Using the “Follow” button will let the meeting organiser know that you cannot attend the meeting but that you are interested in the details.
Follow response returned to the meeting organiser
The organiser will be prompted about recording or transcribing the meeting.
A number of updates and changes have been published by Microsoft over the recent weeks. This blog post provides brief details about the ones that are most impactful for members of Imperial’s community.
Calendar Notifications in Teams Activity Feed
You can now get the Calendar Notifications in Teams from the Activity Feed.
You will get calendar notifications in the Activity Feed for the following scenarios:
Meeting invite (including channel meetings you are explicitly invited to) Meeting updates Meeting cancellations Meeting forwards (as an organizer)
When you get a calendar notification, you will see an unread notification in the Activity Feed pane or at the bell icon.
When you click on a notification, you will see the details of the meeting / event in the right pane.
Tags in Teams Private Channels
If you use tags within a team to associate groups of users, you can now use these tags for @ mentions inside Private channels.
Changes to the Website Tab in Teams
Microsoft Teams will be retiring the ability to load websites inside the new Teams client when using the Website tab. These website links will open in a new browser tab instead. This is to better align with emerging best practices in web security and privacy while also improving the reliability of websites opened through this feature.
Education tenants will be subject to this change but not before July 2024.
At the current time you are urged to plan for this forthcoming change which may not take effect until after summer 2024.
More videos visible in Teams meetings in Chrome and Edge
Microsoft Teams Meetings currently supports a maximum of 4 videos (2×2) on the screen by default (i.e., Gallery view) on web browsers.
With this update, users will be able to automatically see up to 9 videos (3×3) on Chrome and Edge on their screen by default without any additional explicit action.
Emojis, Gifs and Stickers in one unified “picker”
Users can soon find all of their emojis, GIFs, and stickers in a combined picker in Microsoft Teams. This simplifies the experience and will be available by early May 2024 at the latest.
Hide the “general” channel in Teams
Similar to other channels in a team, now you will be able to hide general channels as well! As a team member, when you become a part of a team, you see general channel always shown in your teams and channels list. From April 2024 you will have the option to hide this channel from the list of channels that you see in your default Teams view.
Intelligent recap on iOS and Android
For users with a Teams Premium License (https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/office365/2024/04/29/microsoft-teams-premium-licenses/) Intelligent recap is now available in iOS and Android versions of Teams. Meetings recorded or transcribed and where the organiser has a Teams Premium license will now be delivered with the AI generated meeting notes and actions in the same way as when recorded from a desktop device.
Planner App in Teams
The new Planner App is now available for use in Microsoft Teams. Previously known as “Tasks by To-Do and Planner”, the new Planner App builds on the new releases of functionality in Planner and the new Planner Premium features.
Microsoft assure us that Planner Premium licenses will be available for Education tenants such as ours to purchase in due course. If you wish to use Planner Premium features immediately then you should contact the Service Desk to purchase a Microsoft Project Plan 3 (Project Pro) license as this enables Planner Premium features today.
Teams meeting recordings will be saved into the Organiser’s OneDrive for Business instead of the person who initiated the recording. Microsoft is making this change for governance and compliance purposes and to ensure a simple and understandable policy for where the recording is stored.
The change will be made by the end of May 2024. After that time all Teams meeting recordings will be stored in the OneDrive for Business of the account that organises the meeting.
Shorter Teams Meeting URLs
Microsoft are changing the format of the URLs for Teams meetings, removing some information and thus reducing the length of the URL. This will make it easier to copy and paste meeting URLs into meetings or chats for quick access.
The change will be rolled out between mid May and late June 2024.
Teams for Web – Safari and Firefox
Up until April 2024 New Teams has only worked in the Chrome and Edge web browsers on Windows, macOS and Linux.
With immediate effect, New Teams for Web on Firefox is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. New Teams for Web on Safari is now available now on macOS
Media node in OneDrive for Business
Microsoft will be adding a Media node to the left navigation bar of Microsoft OneDrive for web that will allow customers to easily find all the photo and video content stored in their OneDrive in a single view.
When an end user navigates to the Media node, they will see a view of all the photo and video content stored within their OneDrive.
This content will be sorted by the date the content was created. The files shown in this view are the same files stored in the user’s OneDrive and the Media node does not create separate copies of the content.
End users will be able to perform actions on the media content in this view such as Share, Download, or Delete. These actions will behave the same way in the Media node as they do in the My Files node.
Media node in OneDrive
This feature should be visible by mid May 2024.
Loop components in OneNote
You can create or insert Loop components into your Microsoft OneNote notebook.
Loop component in OneNote for Web
With Loop components in OneNote, users can:
Enhance Collaboration
Bringing unstructured, collaborative content from Loop components in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook into OneNote notebooks, fostering real-time collaboration and sharing.
Improve Productivity: Quickly augment and recall collaborative notes within the familiar workflow of OneNote, enabling tasks to be completed more efficiently.
How to Insert Loop components into OneNote for Web
When using Microsoft Whiteboard, users will be able to @mention other users within their tenant inside of a comment.
The flow will look and feel similar to other Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
The user will type an @ symbol followed by the name of the user they would like to @mention in the text of a comment.
If the @mentioned user is not actively using Whiteboard then they will be sent a notification via email and via the Microsoft Outlook notification bell. Inside of Whiteboard, the @mentioned user will see a blue @mention badge on the comment in which they are mentioned.
Additional things to note:
Users will be shown a teaching callout within Whiteboard to inform them of the new @mention feature. Similar to the blue @mention badge, users will see a new red badge on comments that will display the number of replies in that comment thread that they have yet to read.
This feature is planned to be available by late May 2024.
The availability of third-party tools for Meeting AI capabilities, such as Meeting Notes, Actions, etc., has been rapidly rising.
Unfortunately, these AI systems are beyond Imperial’s reach or trust at the present time – see Imperial’s AI and Education Guidance Hub pages (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/education/resources/ai-education-hub/). Additionally, licensing such capabilities is expensive and may expose college data to use in the training of future AI models such as ChatGPT, etc.
Staff who wish to use meeting AI can now request a Teams Premium license through ICT.
The Teams Premium license costs £20 + VAT per user per year (or part thereof).
What’s in the Teams Premium license?
Teams Premium licenses deliver intelligent meeting recaps, live translations, and advanced event capabilities.
Meeting AI—If you record or transcribe a meeting, the AI will generate a meeting summary and a list of actions recorded during the meeting.
Live Caption translation—A Teams Premium license allows meeting attendees to choose the language into which the captions they view are translated. There is a list of 40 current languages, with more being added constantly.
Advanced Event experiences—If you are a webinar or Town Hall user, the Teams Premium license will add additional functionality to these event offerings.
Once checked, the cost will be charged to your nominated cost code, and the license will be provisioned against your account.
N.B. Teams Premium can only be provided for users with an A3 or A5 license – please validate your license eligibility by going to the photo profile or initials in your Office 365 pages (https://office.imperial.ac.uk), then clicking on view account and choosing the subscriptions element. When viewing your subscriptions, you must check that you have either “Microsoft 365 A5 for faculty” or “Microsoft 365 A3 for faculty” applied to your account.
Microsoft have recently announced a slew of updates and feature changes for Microsoft 365 and Teams. We’ve distilled down these changes to give you a quick summary of the updates that you’ll be seeing over the coming weeks.
Using your personal account in New Teams
Starting in April 2024 and rolling out gradually, the new Microsoft Teams desktop app on Windows and Mac will let you use any type of Teams account (work, school, or personal).
Meeting Recap
Launching in April 2024, shortly after a meeting ends, a recap message will appear in the meeting chat with links to the meeting recap page and meeting artifacts such as the transcript, the recording, any files shared in the meeting, and the meeting Collaborative notes and Whiteboard (if used).
New Planner App in Teams
The old Tasks by Planner and To Do app within Teams is being replaced during late March and early April. The new app will be called Planner and will bring together tasks from To Do (your personal productivity list), Planner (your groups tasks) and Project (if you have Project), allowing you to see all your work and personal tasks in one space.
Teams Calendar Meeting Notifications
By the end of April 2024, when you receive an invitation or an update to a meeting, a notification will be added tot he notifications area in teams giving real time notifications of new meetings, updates and changes.
If you schedule a new meeting in a Teams channel, then you can now choose to alert all the members and add it to their calendar. This should mean that team members no longer miss out on channel scheduled meetings.
Teams Meetings in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge
If you are using a web browser to join a meeting then from the beginning of March you will be able to view an enhanced gallery of up to 9 videos on the screen instead of the previous 4. You need take no action to see this updated view.
Viva Engage – Create or Reply to a Post using email
The ability to create a new post or reply to an existing post directly using email will be retired from Viva Engage starting on March 31st, 2024.
To Do App on iOS
If you use the To Do app on an iPhone or iPad device, the new version has a minimum iOS version requirement of iOS 15.
Minimum versions for iOS and Android OS ensure security and bug fixes are optimised.
Retirement of MS Publisher – October 2026
In October 2026, Microsoft Publisher will reach its end of life. After that time, it will no longer be included in Microsoft 365 and existing on-premises suites will no longer be supported. Until then, support for Publisher will continue and users can expect the same experience as today.
New App Launcher in Microsoft 365
The new App Launcher experience will be rolling out between April and June 2024.
The new launcher should bring improvements in access to apps and ease of access to recent files too.
In September 2024 Microsoft will turn off Live Events in Microsoft Teams. This will affect any users who have had access to Public facing Live Events.
What Now?
A new feature, called Microsoft Town Halls is being rolled out with greater capabilities than Live Events.
Town Halls feature a “green room” for pre-event preparation and bringing speakers together.
Town Halls also offer the ability to bring multiple speakers into view along with content such as presentations of screen shares or for panel style sessions with multiple speakers (up to 7 in view at any one time) – something that was difficult with Live Events.
Town Halls also offer the ability to send integrated emails for attendees – so no copying and pasting the attendee link into a separate calendar invitation in the future. Emails may also be customised further when the organiser has a Teams Premium license.
Live Events switch-off
Live Events capability will be switched off on the 31 July 2024. Staff who have Public Facing Live Event capabilities will be contacted in the coming weeks to discuss current and anticipated requirements going forwards.
New Town Hall users
ICT will shortly publish a new request form for Town Hall capabilities. Staff who wish to use Town Hall features will need to apply for this capability at least one month in advance of their planned event to ensure time for the College events team to review the request and for capabilities to be enabled, rehearsals held, etc.
